HEC Asia Cup Rd2 – Report
Round two of the HEC Asia Cup, run in collaboration with the Serpent GT Cup, was held at Tom Racing Circuit in Hong Kong with about 70 entries in several nitro on-road classes. Ng Chiu Man would top qualify in the 1/8th nitro class and after a good start into the A-main he looked like he would bring home the win but some tome into the race 5th place qualifier, Kelvin Hui was able to close the gap to the leader quickly. At about the 35-minute mark both were only separated by about a second but with less than two minutes to go Hui’s car suffered an engine failure on the straight which allowed Ng Chiu Man to cruise to the win. 3rd placed Nelso Woo could not capitalise from Kelvin’s issue so he had to settle for 3rd while a lucky Kelvin snatched the runner-up spot.
In the GT Open class Ah Sam took the TQ and with a dominant performance in the A-main, setting quick laps from early on, he was able to cruise to the win while second place finisher, Leung Wai had an eventful race after he suffered a flameout and having to work his way up into second. Behind him and with a considerable margin, Patrick Chan would round out the podium.
In the GT Sport class the battle to watch was between the 2nd and 3rd place as both finished only about a second apart after the 30-minute main. With the TQ honours going to Serpent factory driver StickKing, he was also able to take an early lead, never looking back. Without any issues Stickking was able to finish three laps ahead of the field while Tam Chi Man and Feihung battled for the runner up spot. With both drivers having almost identical fastest laps as well as average laps it was all down to small mistakes. In the end, Tam Chi Man came out on top ahead of Feihung.
In the RTR class things went not so straight for TQ holder Jason Choi who suffered from bad luck right from the start of the final, allowing the 2nd and 3rd placed qualifiers to take and advantage. Felix Ling, coming from the 2 spot, ultimately ended the race some two laps ahead of Tsang Yin Wa and Ben Lau who fought for the runner-up spot with the better end for Tsang who ended the race a second ahead of Ben.
In the long wheel base GT Class, it is all about realistic body and chassis characteristics. The TQ honours went to local Ligo Kong and he also set the early pace but incidents with lapped cars resulted in a body tuck and lost body clips that let 2nd place qualifier, Nelson Woo capitalise. With a fast pace Nelson started to pull away from the field and in the end he was able to bring home a 3-lap margin while TQ Ligo had to settle for second while Clavin Hemoss brought home the final podium spot.
